The US Federal Reserve has taken a first step toward establishing a more limited version of its so-called core accounts, welcoming comments on how the central bank could formulate “payment accounts” that would provide access to its payment channels without businesses having to jump through the considerable hurdles that would ensure more comprehensive services.
The Fed said in a statement Friday that it was requesting information on how to satisfy incoming requests from companies that rely on new technologies to more easily access services “for the express purpose of clearing and settling the institution’s payments activity,” according to a board memo on the concept. The public comment window will be open for 45 days.
The Fed’s main accounts are direct conduits for financial companies to the central bank’s payment channels. They can be difficult to obtain, and this has been difficult for some crypto companies.
“These new payment accounts would support innovation while ensuring the security of the payment system,” Gov. Christopher Waller said in a statement. “This request for information is a key first step in ensuring that the Fed is responsive to developments in how payments are made.”
Waller previously came out in favor of the idea, pitching it as a “skinny” primary account in October. In Friday’s descriptions, the accounts would pay no interest, provide access to Fed credit and have balance limits.
Gov. Michael Barr, a Democratic appointee and head of Fed regulation until President Donald Trump’s administration, said he opposed the request on the grounds that it “is not sufficiently specific about safeguards to protect against the use of accounts for money laundering and terrorist financing by institutions that we do not supervise.”
